The lightest of FiftyFifty's ales, Base Camp is a thirst quenching delight. Pale straw to light gold in color, this beer has a mild malt flavor combined with light bitterness and hop flavor. This beer finishes dry and is very light and refreshing on the palate. Base Camp is a "session beer", meaning you can easily toss back a few in one sitting. So go ahead, pull up a chair and camp out for a while.

A 'Colonial America' Porter, a robust brew with a moderate to heavy mouth feel, very deep brown in color, and imminently drinkable. Featured in the brew are hand toasted oat flakes and molasses. Made to be a formidable beer to ward off winter's chill. The flavor is a complex array of dark chocolate, espresso, and dark dried fruit. Your friends never tasted so good!

Eclipse Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

One of the most epic beer tasting experiences you will ever have; this is what you get when you take our Totality Imperial Stout and age it in oak bourbon barrels. That extra step adds a plethora of flavors to the already rich Imperial Stout. At first taste there is a large presence of dark chocolate, espresso and warmth from the alcohol of the beer. Oak barrel character then comes into play with hints of vanilla and coconut, followed by mild bitterness from the hops, and then a nice long lingering finish with hints of tobacco, dark dried fruit and more chocolate. Eclipse is a wonderful companion with dessert. A beer meant for contemplation best enjoyed in a snifter and with a friend. Brewed in small 300 gallons batches, our brewers lovingly craft this masterpiece once a year.

Our Farmhouse Ale is a Saison brewed in the tradition of Wallonian Beer, with no spices and a low finishing gravity. Originating in the farms of Wallonia, and intended as a 'restorative' for farm hands and coal miners, the focus is on yeast derived flavors and a distinctly 'Belgian' profile. Definitely not a Wit or Wheat beer; it is dry, with slight acidity, and definitely thirst quenching.

We at FiftyFifty believe that beer is good. Especially this beer. Manifesto is one of FiftyFifty's flagship beers. This beer is a delight for those who take pleasure in craft beers and are looking for something that they can enjoy a few pints of. Manifesto has a restrained malt backbone of flavor with mild biscuit and caramel notes, and the hop character is light to moderate with mild earthiness evolving to a slightly more moderate citrus/piney finish. This is a beer of principle.
Old Conundrum Barleywine aged in Brandy Barrels

Brandy Barrel-Aged Old Conundrum Barleywine

70 IBU / 9.5% ABV

This one can only be described as rich, intense, and layered with flavor. You're just going to have to try it for yourself. There is very limited supply, so hurry because it will run out soon!

If being in one of the coldest places in the US isn't extreme enough, the contents of this beer may very well redefine your commitment to the pursuit of hops. Rockslide IPA is brewed in the 'West Coast' style with aggressive amounts of American hops such as Amarillo, Centennial and Summit hops. You are greeted with a full frontal assault of citrus/grapefruit/pine hop character, followed up with malt to balance the mouth feel. This beer is all about hops.

We took Trifecta, our Belgian-style triple, and aged it in Elijah Craig 12yr whiskey barrels for 6 months. The complex spiciness and mild malt sweetness matured and became more rich as it aged, and the finished product can only be described as delicious.

Barrel Aged Really Tasty

This is a rare one-off beer blended on the brewers whim. The most recent iteration contains a delicious blend of Totality Imperial Stout, Donner Party Porter, and our Summit Barleywine, aged in Oak Bourbon Barrels for 180 days.

A devilishly tasty beer, this one is meant to be sipped slowly, as to let the complex flavors unfold on your palette. Our unique Belgian yeast blend and adjuncts produce hints of rum, raisins, dark dried fruit and yeast derived spiciness. This beer is fermented quite warm to develop the unique Belgian flavor profile one comes to expect from this type of beer.

Evil On Jack

We took our diabolically pleasing Concentrated Evil Belgian Dark Strong Ale, and aged it in Jack Daniels Barrels for seven months to come up with this delectable brew. The result is quite spectacular, with hints of raisin, rum, brown sugar and dark fruit, and oaked bourbon like finish.

FiftyFifty's "Wit" beer, Foggy Goggle is a Belgian Style Wheat Beer, cousin of the German Hefeweizen. An unfiltered beer, Foggy Goggle is brewed true to style, using a yeast strain that originated in Belgium, with just a hint of orange peel, lemon peel, and chamomile. The appearance is an opaque yellow with a wonderfully fluffy head. The predominant aroma is citrus with a hint of coriander, and a unique spicy note. With citrus playing a big part of the flavor, Foggy Goggle is a very refreshing choice.

A foray into the alternative darker styles of IPA, this seriously tasty brew has a delicious malt backbone to nicely balance the copious amount of hops. Never to be conformists, we use some tasty red caramel malts instead of following the trend towards darker roasted malts, which gives this beer its own unique flavor profile.

Fermented with lager yeast and lagered eight weeks, and then aged in French Oak barrels that had 3 turns of Cabernet Sauvignon. At four months we added 3 French Oak heavy toast 'spirals' that had soaked in Cabernet Sauvignon to really give it some extra character. We then aged it for another four months. An interesting fusion of beer and wine, complex and layered with the underlying wine character appearing in the finish. Delicious!

RyePA is a “West Coast” style IPA brewed with Rye Malt, a great beer if you are a hophead. This beer is brewed with 20% Rye Malt and 5% Flaked Rye, creating a big malty beer with a spice note and strong mouth feel. The hops provide a full frontal assault of citrus, balancing quite well with the malt character.

This is one of FiftyFifty's seasonal ales, and is a high alcohol Belgian style beer. Brewed with inspiration from Belgian Trappist Ales, Trifecta also includes locally grown honey. With a complex spiciness tempered by the sweeter notes from the honey, flavors of spicy sage, alcohol, and mild malt sweetness are apparent, and sage and clove like aromas predominate. Coming in at around 11% ABV, this beer is deceptively strong.

Not that the entire line-up of Fifty-Fifty brews don't sounds all together amazing, but...

Originally Posted by jtmartino

Barrel Aged Really Tasty

This is a rare one-off beer blended on the brewers whim. The most recent iteration contains a delicious blend of Totality Imperial Stout, Donner Party Porter, and our Summit Barleywine, aged in Oak Bourbon Barrels for 180 days.

Fermented with lager yeast and lagered eight weeks, and then aged in French Oak barrels that had 3 turns of Cabernet Sauvignon. At four months we added 3 French Oak heavy toast 'spirals' that had soaked in Cabernet Sauvignon to really give it some extra character. We then aged it for another four months. An interesting fusion of beer and wine, complex and layered with the underlying wine character appearing in the finish. Delicious!

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. - Winston Churchill

Seems like this May won't be a bad time for a beer drinker to head to the southern part of the state either. The World Beer Cup and Craft Brewers Conference will both take place in San Diego the first week of May. Looking forward to it!

Alright FiftyFifty didn't have all the beers listed on their website. In fact, they didn't have most of the ones I was excited about. But they did have a bunch of different beers on tap, and a few pretty solid beers (as well as some less-than-impressive options.) The pictures below show what beers they had available.

The great - Donner Party Porter, 2011 Eclipse Blend (12 Year Elijah Craig, 18 Year Elijah, and Four Roses blend)

Fifty Fifty needs to work on their Belgians - they are all too citrus and tart, and not as well-balanced as I'm used to. They also should focus more on aromatic hops rather than bittering hops in the rest of their ales.

The porter and Eclipse were the best beers they had. The porter was light in body and mouthfeel but really rich in flavor. Well-balanced with strong roasted chocolate and coffee flavors, with a nice piney hop kick. The Eclipse was really tasty. Smoother with a slightly more complex profile than the single-barrel ones I've had in the past. A really good treat.

Overall, it was a pretty fun experience. A really good diverse selection of beer and some tasty food at the pub make it a nice stopping point on the drive up to Tahoe.

I guess we have 3 more days to celebrate. Just curious, I know Fifty Fifty is in Truckee but where is Truckee? I've heard so many good things about Fifty Fifty but I can't seem to find any here in SoCal. Can't wait for the Firestone anniv. festival to try some of their beers.

Truckee is about 20 miles NW of Lake Tahoe. You pass through it if you take I-80 to Tahoe.

That FW festival looks great. If I were you, I'd hit Fifty Fifty for their Eclipse but then make my way over to the good stuff that you can't get in California - Three Floyds, Bells, Founders, Cigar City, Odell, Nebraska, Boulevard and Sun King.

Thanks for the report jtmartino. I've been wanting to make the pilgrimage up to Fifty Fifty for a while now but haven't done it. I remember seeing the building years ago just after it was built and thinking to myself "Ah, new brewery in Truckee. Wonder if it's any good?" Now it's considered one of the best in the state if not the country.

I did get to go to The Trappist this weekend with my wife which is a rare treat for us.